


Reality is Shattering

by musicals_musicals



Category: The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Team StarKid
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Apocalypse, Character thinks they are going crazy, Coffee Shops, Dreams and Nightmares, I suddenly remember nothing about this, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Multi, Paul is having a rough week, Paul is so Confused, Post-Canon, Regret, Sad, Weird Plot Shit, Weirdness, duh - Freeform, musical apocalypse, there is a lot of regret, well actually, you guys are not ready for this ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-09
Updated: 2019-02-09
Packaged: 2019-10-24 21:27:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17711879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/musicals_musicals/pseuds/musicals_musicals
Summary: After a musical apocalypse Paul would like to think he can handle anything life throws at him, but this is weird and slightly terrifying. Because, when you pull a pin on a grenade you are supposed to die. Right? You aren't supposed to be sent back in time, or to a different dimension, or put in a really weird dream. None of those things should happen, but at least one of them definitely is.





	Reality is Shattering

**Author's Note:**

> I had a snow day today and spent most of the time writing and editing this. (I had such a good name for my last firebringer fic and now this one sucks)

_I don’t like musicals!_

When Paul pulls the pin the world explodes. Sure it’s a grenade and that’s exactly what is supposed to happen, but something about it is weird. Instead of the burning and the pain he was expecting to feel, he’s just numb and it feels like the different aspects of reality are shattering and coming back together. The only thing he can think of is Emma. As long as Emma survives none of this matters. He’ll die and Emma will live and everything will be worth it.

The world is absorbed in a cloud of light. He can’t see the infected anymore, no Charlotte, no Bill, and no Greenpeace lady. He’s flying backwards, and just when he thinks he will land and break every bone in his body, he blacks out.

\-------

Paul wakes up with a gasp. He can’t move, something is tangled around his legs, restricting his movement. His eyes open, expecting to see some kind of alien mothership, but instead it’s a bedroom. Wait no. It’s his bedroom.

His sheets are wrapped around his legs and the sun is coming through the window, just like it always is. He can hear cars and the sounds of people going about their normal days, which is unsettling. His alarm goes off at six o'clock on the dot, like usual and Paul reluctantly gets out of bed.

His suit is hanging in his closet, looking just like it always does. Except it’s on the left instead of the right. He has bagels in the fridge, though the cream cheese is expired, and when he makes it to the parking lot his gas tank is halfway full. The desk person in the apartment building says hello to him, undramatically and not trying to kill him, and when someone with headphones passes him while singing he can safely say that they are very out of tune.

Paul would almost believe that the last two days was a dream, if it weren’t for the spots of blood he found on one of his dress shirts from when Emma tried to kiss him.

Emma.

Paul doesn’t dare go to beanie’s. He even drives the extra block to make sure he won’t even pass by the front window. As much as he wants to see Emma, the idea of it terrifies him. Something is definitely wrong and he doesn’t want to drag Emma into it, maybe this was all a huge hallucination his brain had created after he blew himself up. Maybe he was actually infected, but his brain was going to be stuck in a day dream while his body did the aliens bidding. Maybe his body was out there right now, singing and dancing, and trying to kill the one girl he actually liked.

Maybe he should stop thinking about it.

When Paul walks into the office, he braces himself for the disaster that he ran from two days ago.

“Paul where is your statistical analysis?” Mr. Davidson comes out of nowhere and Paul think he might have a heart attack. “It was supposed to be on my desk yesterday”

Paul waits for the shoe to drop and for Mr. Davidson to burst into song again, but instead he just looks more and more angry the longer Paul stays silent. Paul gets the hint and realizes that he should probably cover if he doesn’t want to be fired .“Oh– yes. Yes! I have them. I’ll get them to you. Right now. Goodbye” Paul ducks into the closest elevator and the door closes on Mr. Davidson.

What the fuck is going on.

Paul doesn’t realize there’s someone else in the elevator until they speak.

“Hey Paul. I hear you didn’t get your reports in. Why is your work ethic so bad? Maybe you should try my style: just turn stuff in on time” Ted leans against the elevator railing and his hair falls in his face in that really douchebag way it always does.

All of the love Paul held for Ted is gone. (Not that there was very much) “Oh hi Ted”

“Buddy I had a wild weekend” Ted continues “I went over to Charlotte’s house and I won’t tell you exactly what we did, but I’m sure you can guess” Ted raises his eyebrows suggestively and shakes his hips.

Paul was too busy trying not to puke from that horrible image that it takes him a second to process “Wait what?!!” Charlotte he mentioned Charlotte. And he isn’t badly covering it up “Charlotte?”

“Duh,” Ted rolls his eyes “She’s good– if you know what I mean”

“But Charlotte is married” Paul slowly connects the dots “Sam, the asshole”

“Dude she’s been divorced for months” Ted looks at Paul like he’s an idiot “We’ve been fucking for twice that”

So things are different. The elevator door opens and Paul makes an escape without even looking at the floor number. He needs to be done with that conversation. Immediately.

Luckily Paul is on the right floor. He beelines for his desk and buries his face in his hands. What the fuck.

Everything is the same as it was. Except it’s not. Paul’s brain hurts from trying to figure it out. Is he in an alternate dimension? His inner nerd is excited about that theory. Or is it just a weird possessed hallucination. Did he time travel? That one doesn’t make any sense, he’s in almost the past, but it’s different than it was the first time. Maybe it’s because he blew up the meteor? It might’ve reset things, but not perfectly. Can that happen?

“Hey Paul, you okay?” Bill’s voice comes out of nowhere. God Bill. His best friend who he watched get shot in the head.

Paul jumps to his feet and hugs Bill tightly. He’d been so focused on Emma and Ted and Charlotte that he completely forget about Bill. “I’m great”

Bill seems confused about why Paul is hugging him, but he isn’t opposed. He hesitantly pats Paul on the back “Uh, Okay?”

Paul kind of feels like he’s going to burst into tears, but he doesn’t. Instead he composes himself and pulls away, like it’s normal for him to casually hug Bill. “How’s Alice?” Even if he sometimes seems uninterested in Bill’s social life, after everything he witnessed during the semi-apocalypse he needs to know. (Also he always liked Alice. It sucked when the alien possesing her body tried to kill him.

Bill’s face lights up “Actually it’s great!” Bill sits in his desk chair and rolls over to Paul’s desk “See she was supposed to go home two days ago on the bus, but she got off to go see Deb” Paul notices that when Bill says his daughter’s girlfriends name it is with less anger than usual. “So last night was talking to Alice after Deb left, and we were fighting, but then– get this Paul! She told me that she wants to live with me instead of her mother! Ha! So we talk to her mother and she objects, obviously. Because I’m a supposed  _Bad influence_ ” Bill looks hurt and Paul is reminded of how much he hates Bill’s ex-wife “But Alice starts talking about legal stuff– apparently she’s been researching. And because she’s seventeen it’s her choice. So her mom agrees as long as Alice visits once a week. So now I have my daughter back!”

Paul waits a second to see if Bill is done before talking “That’s great Bill”

“I know!” Bill smiled. He leaned forward “Also she loved Mamma Mia!”

Paul froze a bit at the mention of a musical, but it didn’t seem to do anything. Part of him was still expecting this to be some bullshit prank. Like the aliens wanted to punish him because he  _Defied them thrice_  or some shit. “I’m glad”

“I’m sorry you missed it–” Paul tuned out Bill’s voice. He did not need to know the exact plot of Mamma mia, no matter what Bill said. While he was zoning out he suddenly remembered his talk with Mr. Davidson. “So then the mom’s friends all started singing–”

“Shit! My weekly report” Paul cut Bill off mid sentence.

“I did it for you remember?” Bill passed Paul the papers “Because you were sick yesterday”

He was sick? That’s weird Paul has never missed a day of work from sickness (It doesn’t count if your boss sends you home because they don’t want you to get everyone else sick). Paul took the weekly report and scanned a couple of pages. “Thanks Bill”

“It’s no problem” Bill took the report back and dropped it on Melissa’s desk where she would hopefully give it to Mr. Davidson.

“Oh hello Paul, Bill” Charlotte walked slowly and put a cup of coffee on her desk “I didn’t know you were here”

Charlotte was wearing her cat sweater, the one she died in.  _Shake it off Paul._  He needed to stop thinking about his friends and the ways they died “Hi Charlotte” He looked Charlotte up and down, she looked the same as she had, though her hands weren’t shaking as much as usual and she looked happier. Was being with Ted that much better than Sam? Or was there something different that he didn’t know about that was putting her in a better mood. “How are you?”

“I’m fantastic” Charlotte took a drink from her cup and Paul realized that it was actually the herbal tea that everyone avoided in favor of coffee. “Ted took me on the nicest date last night–”

“Charlotte you’re ruining my image” Ted complained he leaned down to kiss her on the cheek and smiled at her in a very-not-Ted way.

“Sorry sweetheart” Charlotte kissed Ted quickly before going back to her tea.

Paul felt his eyes bug out in shock. What the fuck.

“I’m going to go get some coffee” Paul stood up abruptly. This was too weird. “At the nice  _normal_  Starbucks”

Charlotte frowned “I just made a new pot in the–”

“Nope” Paul looked around and grabbed his wallet “I have a… a gift card! Yeah, I’ll be back”

Paul didn’t wait for his friends confirmation, he just left.

\------

Paul let the muscle memory take him to the coffee shop while he thought about what had happened. He must be in a hallucination. That was the only logical explanation. The real question was whether he hit his head when the blast went off, or if it was alien induced. Maybe both? Paul was regretting the fact that he never read science fiction books, maybe that would’ve given him a better idea of what was going on.

Paul opened the door to the shop and didn’t realize anything was wrong until the bell above the door went off. Instead of the small beep that happened when you walk into Starbucks, he heard the tell tale wind chime of Beanie’s. Before he could turn around and run he met eyes with the girl at the counter; Zoey if he remembered correctly. He would look like an ass if he left now.

At least Emma wasn’t at the counter. Wait was that a bad thing? What if Emma just didn’t exist in this world? Is that good or bad?

Out of curiosity he turned around to see how he ended up at Beanie’s instead of Starbucks. He realized that he had walked to the right place, but in this world or hallucination Beanie’s was right by his work and the Starbucks was visible about a block away. Paul hated this.

He tapped his fingers against his wallet while he waited in line. It would be fine, he wouldn’t even need to talk to Emma, he could be in and out before her break was over. To his horror right as he got to the counter Emma walked out of the back and took Zoey’s place.

“Paul!” Emma looked surprised “You’re late”

Paul was technically early, but enough things were already out of whack. Why would his normal coffee time be the same. “Yeah, just a black coffee”

“I don’t even get a hello?” Emma asked “You bailed on me yesterday”

“I bailed on what?” According to Bill he had been sick, but he was at least 93% sure he had actually been running from the fucking alien apocalypse.

“I had the closing shift” Emma stared at him like he was supposed to know what that meant.

“Oh yeah, the closing shift” Paul nodded in a way that he hoped was convincing “My bad”

Emma looked unconvinced “Are you okay? You always came hang out while I lock down the store and clean tables. I missed you”

“I was sick” Paul covered, that’s what Bill told him so it must be somewhat right? His heart might’ve fluttered at the fact that Emma knew him here and that he regularly spent time with her, but it was offset by the other fifteen negative emotions he was feeling at the same time.

“Why didn’t you text me?” Emma plucked his wallet out of his hand where he had been holding it in front of himself absently. “Cash or credit?”

“Cash” Paul couldn’t lie to Emma. He needed to tell her what was going on. Maybe she would know what to do. “I need to talk to you”

Emma took a five dollar bill out of Paul’s wallet and returned the proper amount of change. “We can talk tonight, I’m closing again”

“Can it be sooner?” Paul was going to explode if this went on any longer. He also did not want to go back to work.

“Emma hurry the fuck up” Emma’s boss called from the espresso machine “You’re holding up the line”

“Yes Nora” Emma rolled her eyes “You need to go, I’ll see you after work?”

“Of course” Paul took the coffee from her and left the store. That was a failure on every count. And now he had to go back to work and talk to his friends who weren’t like his friends and why was his life such a disaster.

\------

After four hours of keeping his head down at work and ignoring how weird everything felt, he was ready to leave. Or actually he was ready to jump out a window, but leaving was a nice alternate. He didn’t actually know when Emma is supposed to get off work, so he just heads down to Beanie’s as soon as he can leave. Luckily the shop is empty and Emma has most of the lights turned off. He hesitantly knocks on the door and lets him in before re-locking the door

“So what did you want to talk about?” Emma asked. She was wiping down the counter so Paul pulled one of the chairs over to sit on.

“I think I’m either in a different dimension or my current life is all an elaborate illusion that the aliens who killed me came up with” Paul explained in a rush.

Emma turned around slowly “What?”

“I know you probably think that I’m crazy or high or something equally weird, but there was this musical apocalypse and I died, but now I’m back in the world where it never happened and everything is just slightly different so I’m freaking out!” Paul didn’t know what he would do if Emma didn’t believe him.

“I–” Something in Emma’s expression changed “Musical apocalypse?”

“Yes!” Paul needed her to believe him “Everyone who got infected just started singing and dancing like they were in a musical! There was actually a song here– except it wasn’t because in my world Beanie’s is in the Starbucks building– but it was your boss and Zoey and you were doing a tip song but they knew more so they just kept going, and they put blue shit in the coffee!”

Emma stopped wiping the counter and jumped up to sit on top of it. “I believe you”

“And then– Wait what?” Paul had been ready to launch into another description, but he stopped “Why?”

“I’ve been having these dreams…” Emma trailed off “I thought it was nothing, just a dream. But that; what you just described, was in my dream”

“Oh,” Now Paul was really confused “What else do you remember”

“You” Emma blushed a little “We almost kissed”

“Yeah,” Paul would regret not kissing Emma for the rest of his (Probably short) life. “So now I’m here and I’m kind of freaking out”

“You said little things are different?” Emma asked to clarify, when Paul nodded she continued “So what is different? Maybe that has something to do with this”

Paul started listing everything he had noticed throughout the day. He didn’t notice a pattern until he got to the end of the list “Wait everything is better” So far all of the weird changes had been good things that he wanted to happen. Bill got his daughter back, Charlotte was happy, and Emma was working closer to his office. Also now that he looked back on it, the coffee at Beanie’s was significantly better.

“Okay I have an idea” Emma hopped off the counter and threw her rag behind the counter “I have this professor–”

“Hidgens turned out to be evil” Paul interrupted. As much as he liked Hidgens, there was no way he would forgive him for trying to get Emma killed. Oh, and Ted.

“Hidgens?” Emma looked confused “Who the fuck is Hidgens?”

“Noted” Paul nodded. Just another thing to add to the list “Proceed”

“So anyway. She’s super into voodoo stuff. She claims I was like, an astronaut or something, in a past life? Anyway, maybe she can guess what’s going on” Emma rolled her apron into a ball and tucked it under the counter. “Professor Hill”

“That sounds like a long shot” Paul said hesitantly “But I have no better ideas”

\------

Paul should’ve known that Hill would be weird. Why were Emma’s professors always weird? She was majoring in fucking botany. Shouldn’t the professors be plain, normal plant people? Hill looked like she was straight out of a scooby doo cartoon with hair that a cat probably slept in and an outfit that looked like she got lost in a fabric store from the seventies. To Paul’s horror she pulled them into her basement which had a crystal ball and four too many skulls to be average.

“Emma you brought a friend” Hill moved much closer than Paul wanted and looked him in the eye “Or maybe more than a friend?”

“Paul is having a problem Professor” Emma seemed right at home in the horror basement. She sat on the loveseat across the table and took the cup of tea Hill offered her.

“Big problem” Paul stood nervously in front of the loveseat. He was unsure if Emma wanted him that close. Emma rolled her eyes and pulled him down to sit next to her and leaned against his shoulder. Paul waved away the offer of tea and Hill examined him over her octagonal glasses. (Also what company made fucking octagonal glasses?)

“You aren’t from here” Hill sat dramatically in her chair and pulled the crystal ball closer.

“So I am in a different dimension?” Paul missed Hidgens and his extensive bar.

“Maybe so” Hill said unhelpfully (Which seemed to be a common theme) “Here can mean any number of things”

Emma nodded as though that made sense. “We want to know what happened to Paul”

HIll leaned across the table and examined Paul “Hmm”

“Emma I think we should go” Paul leaned back. He no longer cares what’s going on, as long as he never has to see this woman ever again.

“It’s amazing what dreams can bring” Hill nodded at Emma.

“What?” Emma grabbed Paul’s hand nervously. “My dreams?”

“The dreams will give it away” Hill repeated. She pushed away the crystal ball, even though she had barely used it. “That is all I can see” Hill pushed them out of her… house? Basement? Apartment? Cave?

“I never want to see that woman ever again” Paul said once the door closed. He was starting to miss the apocalypse, at least he knew that was real.

“I wish she’d been more helpful”

“At least she didn’t try to kill us” Emma laughed and Paul suddenly realized they were still holding hands. It was nice.

“Do you want to come over to my place?” Emma asked when they got in the car “You probably shouldn’t be alone”

“Sure” Paul was pretty sure he would be fine alone, it wasn’t like someone was trying to murder him. But it was sweet that Emma was worried.

\------

They got back to Emma’s with little difficulty. Everything was so much easier when aliens weren’t trying to infect you and take over the world. Paul wondered what Bill was doing, a part of him, was still hoping that this was actually real. Everyone was way happier and Paul wouldn’t mind staying here forever.

“So we don’t actually know each other in your memories?” Emma asked casually.

“When I exploded we had only actually known each other for about three days” Paul didn’t think pining after Emma for a month counts.

“I must’ve really liked you” Emma reasoned. “And I never actually kissed you”

“The one time we tried you spit up blood on my face”

“I think we can do better than that” Emma grabbed Paul’s shirt to pull him in and kissed him right as the world started to dissolve.

\------

Emma came to consciousness slowly, holding on to the dream for as long as possible. Sadly enough the dream faded and Emma finally woke up. Paul’s untucked shirt she was holding became the sheets on the uniform hospital bed had been sleeping in for weeks now. The apartment she loved, though the real Paul had never set foot in it, became the dark and empty room. It was amazing the things her dreams came up with. Anything to make her believe that she didn’t lose her chance with the one guy she actually liked.

Throughout the last week Emma’s head had given her so many foolish fantasies. Fantasies where everyone was actually happy, and the friends she’d only had for a day and a half lived long enough for her to get to know them.

“Kelly get up! You’re leaving today” Emma jumped at Colonel Schaffer’s voice. The Colonel was annoying, but Emma was at least looking forward to leaving and hopefully moving on.

**Author's Note:**

> I was so on top of this and then I couldn't figure out how to end it. Also I realized that this is actually my first tgwdlm fic I've posted on here because all the 50 ways to say I love you stuff was only on tumblr. Speaking of [@musicals-musicals](https://musicals-musicals.tumblr.com/) on tumblr come check it out and reblog the post I'm about to make for this.


End file.
